George Carlin on "the American Dream"
- Thread starter canada-man
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"Its called the American Dream because you've got to be asleep to believe it." I've heard much funnier bits by Carlin, but he was sure bang on with his analysis. The world is a poorer place without George to point these things out in a very convincing, witty, and yes, sometimes a hiliarious way. Thanks for posting that canada-man.
George was funny, but was he correct? If the "American Drean" is so wildly off base, why do scores of people immigrate to the U.S.A. every year and many times that number apply to immigrate - and this leaves aside illegal immigrants.Questor said:
Well, from my perspective, and I suspect from George's as well, its because the economies of the countries that are sending us these immigrants are not functioning to meet their needs and are leaving many people in poverty or extreme poverty. In some cases, the governments in those countries are horribly repressive. In short, because they are extremely desperate. I don't think that just because the USA is functioning better than the countries where these immigrants come from that means that the American Dream must be true.Aardvark154 said:
The U.S.A. has plenty of immigrants from developed countries around the world, so I'm not sure that argument holds a great deal of water.Questor said:
Great clip!canada-man said:
I've been saying this since the NAM ERA!
It has only gotten worse since then.
Carlin is spot on in his history of who 'owns you'......
I am delighted that you acknowledge that hundreds of thousands of immigrants, especially those with brown skin, do not have a prayer of achieving the "American Dream." Perhaps you and George are not so far apart in your thinking.Aardvark154 said:
The alluring thing about the American Dream is that while it is unattainable for so many, a few win the lottery (and I mean that figuratively and literally) every now and again and manage to keep the Dream alive.
Carlin goes on about the educational system not teaching critical thinking because it is designed to produce unthinking workers and consumers. Interesting that there is another thread in the Lounge on the problems of the educational system. https://terb.cc/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=203894
Comments by terbites are interesting:
Comments by terbites are interesting:
Part of what Tarkus is saying is that its not just the educational system, its also media.Tarkus said:
Tarkus is right. The ultimate irony is that as the information age accelerates, the intelligence quotient is decelerating. We have become a bunch of fat, obnoxious, cynical zombies who only care about accumulating useless things.Questor said:
No where is that more evident than here.....The Crunge said:
You do realize that Carlin was a Comedian.....
OTB
Yes, my comment applies to all North Americans.onthebottom said:
And Carlin started out as a comedian, but became much more than that!
Carlin started out as a comedian then grew far beyond that with biting social satire and commentary that for the most part is more spot on and truthful than the pap you swallow from Rove/El Rushbloe!onthebottom said:
bottie you, like Dubya and McDubya just don't get it, while living in your fantasy world of make believe.....
Aardvark154 said:
more people are moving to canada europe australia and new zealand than moving to the U.S
Probably the same reason people left Oklahoma and went to California during the 'Dust Bowl' years as depicted in John Steinbeck's book 'The Grapes of Wrath'.Aardvark154 said:
Then when they get here they sadly find they were lied to and things are not as 'rosy' as they were told!....
Figures? Past half century, past twenty years, past decade, past five years, past year. As Mark Twain famously said there are "Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics."canada-man said:
So what. I'll bet you're all in favour of this as regards illegal imigration to the U.S.WoodPeckr said:
I think George Carlin living long enough to completely lose faith in his country is a true tragedy. I allmost wish he had died while he still believed it had a chance to get better, or best of all lived long enough to see it actually get better (which means he'd live to 125 or so but still, it would have been nice.)
He not only lost faith in America, he lost faith in the human race. If this is the best we can do, after 5,000+ years of civilization, then natural selection has a lot of work left to do.gramage said:
In listening to some of his radio interviews he did in the year or two before he died, he did not seem bothered by this realization. It almost seemed liberating for him.
